By Holly Bancroft For The Mail On Sunday
Published: 23:20 BST, 20 April 2019 | Updated: 23:20 BST, 20 April 2019
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Dr Gail Bradbook co-founder of Extinction Rebellion at their HQ in Drummond Street, London
I'm standing in the kitchen of Extinction Rebellion’s London headquarters as the protest group’s scrupulously polite co-founder Gail Bradbrook makes me a cup of peppermint tea.
In an open-plan office, about 20 people tap away on laptops and talk in hushed voices.
To the uninformed, it could be one of the hip technology firms or trendy advertising agencies found in abundance across the capital, but this atmosphere of focused professionalism is very different from the last time I was here.
Two weeks ago, I posed as an eco-warrior to infiltrate the revolutionary protest group. When I entered the same fourth-floor office for the first time, loud music played and a man with long hair danced around and waved his arms.
Last weekend I revealed how Extinction Rebellion (XR) was planning huge disruption through a campaign of civil disobedience and by recruiting an army of middle-class ‘rebels’ willing to be arrested.
Gail Bradbrook addresses a speech to the protesters in central London yesterday
Dr Gail Bradbrook (pictured above) is the co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, the group which has been holding demonstrations across the capital this week
Remarkably, despite my deception, I am welcomed back and offered a tour of the nerve centre where XR ringleaders mastermind the rebellion.
The willingness of Gail to show me around says a lot about the group’s sophisticated approach to the media: XR’s blockade is disrupting the lives of millions and they want to do everything they can to explain why.
